[BETA] Shade - A new skin for XBMC

Well, its been over two months now, but the time has arrived. Djeglin and I have been working on this project and are ready for a semi-public beta test. We are needing a handful of people to help locate bugs, issues and/or problems before an official release.

Feel free to post any comments.

Please email me at "wizardxbmcmods@gmail.com" if you want to help out. I am requesting the email because I really need people that will put forth the extra effort to help get this tested. Please provide your XBMC username and any experience skinning or modding you have.

**PLEASE** Post screenshots of any issues so I can find them again. Also, be sure to check each issue on the list as I will post comments asking you for more info.

**UPDATE: Issues already coming in and getting fixed, thanks guys, keep it up.



Home Screen:



Movies Part 1:



Movies Part 2:



TV Shows Part 1:

TV Shows Part 2:



TV Shows Part 3:



Music:



Pictures, Settings, Episode Info:



File Mode:

Let me be the first to add to this thread -

We've been working on this, as Igotdvds hs said, for some time now. The project was simply born from my dissatisfaction with the skins currently available for XBMC (Not that they are bad, more that they just arent quite what I am looking for, I suppose). So, one night back at the beginning of March, I started doodling some ideas.

Igotdvds and I started chatting about creating this skin within a day or two, and we started work from there. I have served as principle designer for the project, and he has provided the excellent coding skills needed to make the project work.

This is by no means a finished product. At the moment we are at a stage where we need your help and support in the community to help us identify bugs, and areas we could improve upon. I'll be honest - In certain areas of designing this skin, I simply had very few ideas. I found it to be very difficult to design for aspects of a media experience that I just don't use (For example, pictures, and to a lesser extent, music - My focus has always really been on TV and Movies). So those who come on board as testers, we need your criticism, your ideas, your expertise and your patience. We work hard on this project, but obviously there are things that can get in the way (For instance the fact that I have just moved home, and it will be a few days at least until I have a reliable internet connection in my new place!).

As said above by Igotdvds, applications to become a tester should go to the email he linked. Other than that, we of course welcome comments in this thread from anyone who is interested. It is worth noting that every image you see above is from a live build of Shade... They aren't mockups. This isnt just another idea that will never see the light of day - This is real, and we're asking for people to use it right now!

Thanks, and we both look forward to all your comments, questions etc!

David

Looks nice, I had a thought along what you guys came up with for a Boxxee-ish home screen. Plus I second djeglin's thought on having a tough time coming up with ideas for those sections you personally hardly use.

Always nice to see new things pop up!

Nice work Guys, It looks pretty sweet.

I will be following with interest. Dare I ask about Add on support I should I just not mention it yet?

retro11 Wrote:Nice work Guys, It looks pretty sweet.

I will be following with interest. Dare I ask about Add on support I should I just not mention it yet?

Add-ons came after we were too far along in the process to backtrack and work with it. I havent installed a build that uses them and therefore have no experience with them. Maybe in the future.

I'll add to the addons discussion as well and say that at very least I would like to get Opensubtitles working on Shade sometime in the not too distant future. I think the best thing for us to do is to take request for support for other addons and get to them as we can.

Nice collaboration guys! I just wanted to comment because you're one of the few people I know besides myself that watches Hustle. (=

Ninjahblu Wrote:Nice collaboration guys! I just wanted to comment because you're one of the few people I know besides myself that watches Hustle. (=

Best show on tv, too bad each season is only 6 eps.